Since its infancy, the electric power industry has used electromechanical meters to capture power usage. Similarly, electromechanical meters have been used for water and gas usage. In the context of electric power meters, the electromechanical meters collected little more than total power usage. Also, the electric power meters required human meter readers to travel to the millions of customer premises in order to read the usage totals captured by the meters. Over time, electromechanical meters began to be replaced by electronic meters.
Electronic meters have computer processing components that allow the meters to capture more data in an intelligent way. For example, today's meters are able to ascertain periodic usage (e.g., which time of day is more power used) or demand determinations (e.g., the peak power), power quality, and power factor considerations. In addition to capturing more data, electronic meters also are able to communicate the more detailed data to the utility over telephone lines or over wireless networks. In fact, the communication sophistication of today's meters is nearly limitless. For example, today's high cost meters are able to communicate directly with a utility's central computing system over fixed communication networks.
Although fixed communication networks provide a sophisticated and reliable communication network, they also require a complex and costly infrastructure. For example, a fixed wireless communication system often requires the installation of pole or roof mounted repeaters or gateways. Such equipment, while important to the reliability of the communication system, creates additional equipment and installation efforts. In addition, the fixed wireless communication systems require a higher cost meter so as to communicate directly with the utility's central server. As a result, AMR systems that rely on the sophisticated meters and fixed wireless networks have become cost prohibitive.
Therefore, there is a need to employ more low cost electronic meters, while maintaining the communication and networking capabilities of today's AMR systems.